Here at THE VINYL DISTRICTwe're good consumers. All Mp3's are posted to promote and give exposure to the music and are linked for a limited time. Please download to preview, then head promptly to your local vinyl vendor (or - OK, CD store too) and fork over your hard earned cash. You'll appreciate the piece of mind.

Got something you think we should be listening to or reading? thevinyldistrict (at) gmail.com

But enough about my diabolical e-plans! It's time to take care of some business, and by "business," I mean I will force my musical opinions on you. Again, you're welcome.

Anyhow, so here we are. I must admit, despite my introductory bravado, I'm a little bit nervous here over at The Vinyl District. See, unlike most of my retardulous musings at The Anti DC, music has always been a very personal thing to me. Not only has it been the basis of many a great friendship, but it's also been a bit of an obsession. At one point, I even toyed with the idea of becoming a rock star myself...

I was living in Moscow, Russia, when a couple of acquaintances approached me at a party and asked if I'd like to join their new band. I gladly accepted (as I love making an ass out of myself) and immediately began preparing for our first gig. After days of outfit planning, I showed up at our show dressed as my alter ego, Babette the French Whore, which instantly became the name of the band. It was at that point that I knew history was about to be made. However, since I'm largely an idiot, the only history made in this instance was me being kicked out of my namesake band. Yeah.

But I'm not bitter. I mean, I was clearly the Gwen Stefani to their No Doubt. What band wouldn't get a little jealous over that? So naturally, they had to squash me before I could blow up and leave them in the proverbial dust, er, borscht (hey, we're talking about the Eastern Bloc here!). Or maybe it was because the only preparation I did for the show was invent an outfit, which took up so much time that I couldn't really learn the lyrics. Moot point, in my opinion.

Anyway, the point is, I love music. Singing it, dancing to it, listening to it, and yes, sometimes even dressing for it. And while I've finally come to accept that I'll never be a rock star (I'm apparently not enough of a multi-tasker for that), I still love great music and those who make it.

And so, without further ado (i.e., me telling any more ridiculous stories about my equally ridiculous past), I invite you to take a listen to some of the most influential, inspiring, fun, irreverent, beautiful, sentimental, memorable, dance-worthy and/or just plain awesome songs that I would put on any mixtape for a good friend or, in this case, e-friend. Enjoy!

...for my pop. In a "hey you got your rock in my classical/no you got your classical in my rock" way, dad and I always found common ground with ELO and this LP in particular when it was new...blasting 'Mr. Blue Sky' on the car radio, tooling around the town while coming up with weirder and funnier band names than Electric Light Orchestra.

Elvis Costello's next solo studio album, curiously dubbed "Momofuku," will arrive April 22 via Lost Highway. For the time being, the set will be released only on vinyl, with a digital download code included in the package.

No other details have been released about the follow-up to 2004's "The Delivery Man," Costello's Lost Highway debut with his band the Imposters. Since then, Costello recorded "The River in Reverse" with pianist Allen Toussaint and supervised the first wave of his back catalog reissues through Universal. The most recent of those, "This Year's Model," arrived March 4. (Via billboard.com)